I used to love reading Michael Crichton. He’s the guy
that wrote Jurassic Park, Sphere, Prey and other thriller, sci-fi books.

What made him good was his research. He dove so deep into
what he was writing about that he learned it form inside out, and he loved
writing about science. Using his intensive research, his mind would map out
interesting convergences of possible technologies.

One of his books, Timeline (1999), dealt with time travel
made possible by quantum computing. Sixteen years later quantum computing is
still in its infancy, and much of its potential is theoretical.

An overview
of quantum computing suggests the ability to perform calculations beyond the
simple binary, into much more complex dimensions.

So instead of one computer, my laptop for example, doing one
calculation to factor a large number, processor grinding away, hard drive light
flashing on overdrive.

A quantum computer could process my laptops calculation
along with an infinite number of the same calculations, simultaneously, span
across all possible computational routes and arrive at the answer.

Let’s say my laptop had to solve a maze, but a really tricky
one, that would take days. It would plot out a route, memorizing where it’s
been, finding a dead ends, turning around, and reorienting itself.

A quantum computer could solve that maze faster, by
processing every possible attempt down every possible alley, all at the same
time. Not one maze, but an infinite number of mazes all being solved in
parallel, by one computer. This is the theory.

Advances in parallel computing have made classical computers
capable of this feast, but to a marginal degree. What kind of margin?

When it comes to factoring an equation with 512 variables it
would take a classical computer 10123 times the age of the universe
to complete. A quantum computer could do it somewhere in your lifetime.

So far we have a quantumish working
model, the D-Wave, in British Colombia, Canada. They’re website boasts:
“Welcome to the future. The quantum computing era has begun.”

In 2013, NASA, Google and some universities showed interest
in D-Wave 2 and its potential to help develop Artificial Intelligence.

D-Wave Systems CEO, Vern Brownell, spoke in 2014 of future
uses for D-Wave 2 and beyond. He suggested the company hopes to share its
computational resources via cloud.

Cloud computing allows companies with vast computation power
to loan that power to end users, without the need to purchase the hardware for themselves.
It is the driving force behind how we use the internet today.

Functioning quantum computers are regarded with skepticism
in the quantum field as not being a ‘true’ quantum computer, but efforts to
improve both benchmarks and functionality of these devices.

Traditional quantum computing is still years away, but if
any computer is going to be making the calculations needed to jump people
through time, it will be a quantum computer.